The Marks You Leave
by SkyGem
Summary: In a world where significant life events make their mark on one's skin, Sawada Tsunayoshi's most beautiful marks are those left there by his family. Mini drabble series. No pairings.
1. Black Wings

Summary: In a world where significant life events make their mark on one's skin, Sawada Tsunayoshi's most beautiful marks are those left there by his family. Mini drabble series.

SkyGem: Hey all! I know I probably shouldn't be starting a new fic with all the ones I have going on, but I'm currently at an impasse with all of those, and I'm hoping this will help me get over that. I already have a few ideas for chapters, and I know I'll be doing at least one chapter for all the guardians, but I'm hoping to do some for other charas as well. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, ne?

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. And the main idea for this came from a Sherlock fanfiction I read on AO3 called "The Best Picture of the Human Soul" by the author SwissMiss.

* * *

Staring openly at someone's marks was considered incredibly rude. Especially when that someone was your boss.

Sierra knew this.

But she found that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the glossy black wings folded neatly on the back of one Sawada Tsunayoshi as he slipped off the shirt he had worn to his meeting today.

Noticing her staring, the brunet turned to throw an amused smile at the young maid, and she was immediately snapped out of whatever trance she had been in. Rushing forward to take the shirt from her boss, Sierra handed him the old, baggy t-shirt and the soft, cotton pyjama bottoms he often wore around the mansion after hours, when the chance of visitors was next to zero.

"It's okay to ask, you know," said the Decimo, still amused.

Sierra's eyes flicked to his back once more, slightly nervous; she had just today been promoted to official personal assistant for her boss, and she didn't quite feel as comfortable around him yet as his other assistants seemed to be.

But she was curious, and he was still smiling kindly at her, so she decided to take the chance.

"When did you get it?" she asked.

The Decimo smiled delightedly, as if she had just given him a marvelous gift, and answered in a light tone, "I got it the day I met Reborn."

And really, that was all that needed to be said for everything to make sense.

The marks that showed up on one's skin weren't always very straightforward. When one was young, they almost always meant exactly what they portrayed, but as people got older and they learned about metaphors and about symbolism, the marks would get more and more cryptic, and more often than not, it was nearly impossible for anyone except the owner (and sometimes not even them) to understand what the marks meant at first glance.

But there really was no two ways about this certain mark.

The Decimo laughed, and there was something like fondness in his voice when he spoke.

"It was my first big mark, you know. Before then, I only had little things, like the shackles around my left ankle, or the blue swirls around my wrist. Then Reborn comes into my life, and he's all rough edges and tough love, and he's not the most gentle person around – which probably accounts for the colour of the wings – but he cares, and even though I don't trust him at first, my body knows before my mind does that he's special."

Sierra couldn't help but smile now.

"And that's how you met your guardian angel."

The Decimo looked at her, and the corners of his eyes crinkled because of the smile that spread across his face, and he chuckled.

"I wouldn't exactly call him an angel, but yeah, something like that."

* * *

SkyGem: Well, that's the first little drabble. I hope you enjoyed it, and please do leave a review letting me know what you thought, ne? I am hoping to get the next chapter up soon, but we'll see how that goes. Ja!


	2. Our Friendship

"Thank you."

Gokudera Hayato smiled at his best friend and boss as the brunet took the cup of tea he had offered him.

And as always, Hayato found his gaze invariably drawn to the beautiful wolf sat perched on the back of his boss's right hand, its fur a bright storm flame red, its intelligent green eyes looking watchfully out at the world, as if it were forever standing guard.

Hayato knew this mark as well as he'd know one of his own; he'd watched it fade into existence on his friend's skin that day his life had been saved by him, and even now, ten years later, he still didn't know how it had happened.

Sure, he knew the biological process of it. He'd made a point of researching it when he was a child.

When something happened that left a deep impression on a person, something life-changing, the brain coped by releasing chemicals into the blood that affected the pigmentation of one's skin, causing coherent images to appear. There were many theories as to why this happened, the most popular of them being that the brain catalogued important information onto a person's skin in the form of meaningful images so that the person would never forget whatever had caused the marks in the first place.

Hayato could tell you the exact chemicals involved in the making of marks.

He could tell you exactly how emotionally stunted you needed to be or what kind of deformity you needed to have to not get marks (because even if it was rare, there were cases of people with mark free skin).

He could even tell you how to tell the difference between genuine marks and tattoos made to look like marks so that a person could fit in easier.

But he could not, for the life of him, tell you why his precious Decimo had gotten such a beautiful mark on the day he'd nearly been killed by Hayato's ignorance, the day he'd saved Hayato from his own clumsiness. Marks made by near-death experiences weren't usually so pleasant to look at (Hayato would know, having so many of them himself).

And as Sawada Tsunayoshi took a sip of his tea, he too found his gaze transfixed by the wolf staring up at him from the skin of his right hand.

Tsuna had noticed Hayato staring at it before, and he knew that the other male often wondered at the reasoning behind it.

Hiding his smile behind his cup, Tsuna tried not to burst out laughing as he imagined his best friend's reaction to finding out what the wolf meant.

To Tsuna, wolves had always meant strength and loyalty and protectiveness, all traits that Hayato had.

But they also meant loneliness, something Hayato and he had shared back then.

This mark signified the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


	3. Loved So Deeply

When people saw Sawada Tsunayoshi for the first time, they often underestimated him.

Perhaps it was the soft, fluffy brown hair.

Perhaps it was the sweet, smiling brown eyes.

Perhaps it was the skylark depicted on his neck with its wings spread wide, as if it were about to land on his collarbone.

Either way, Kensuke Mochida knew that when most people got their first glimpse of his boss, they involuntarily let their guards down, even those who knew of his reputation in the mafia.

Mochida also knew the fear that would grip them once they got close enough to see the bloodlust in the skylark's eyes and the vicious claws its talons bore. A lot of times, he was there, standing guard at the door, and he couldn't help but relish sight of their backs stiffening, the hairs on the backs of their necks rising as they finally registered that this man was far more dangerous than he let on.

It filled Mochida with a strange mix of equal parts pride and shame.

Pride that he worked for such a powerful man.

Shame at the way he had treated him when he'd been younger.

Shaking away these thoughts, the young twenty-something-year-old man straightened his back and brought his attention back to his duties as a guard.

Tsuna didn't seem to have noticed his momentary lapse, but of course he had. He always noticed.

At the moment, the brunet's eyes were on the cowering man before him; one of their own this time, a man who'd made the terrible mistake of betraying the Decimo's trust.

The two were in the middle of a stare-down; neither had moved in more than five minutes.

They stared for a couple minutes more.

Then suddenly, Tsuna let out a little sigh, and brought up his right hand to let his chin rest in it.

Mochida couldn't see the eyes of the poor bastard who was under his boss's scrutiny, but he knew that the man's eyes would have flickered for a second to the bright green eyes of the wolf on his boss's hand before returning to his face.

"Emilio."

The man stiffened a bit more.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Emilio, the traitor, shifted a little in his seat, his head dipping down almost imperceptibly under the weight of Tsuna's gaze. He was a new recruit, brought into the family just last month, which meant that this was probably his first time meeting with his Don.

A terrible first impression.

"I'm sorry."

The words were no more than a whisper.

One of Tsuna's eyebrows raised slightly.

"I was greedy. They promised me fame and money. It was foolish of me to believe them," continues Emilio, his voice just the slightest bit louder.

He was genuinely sorry. It could be heard in the tone of his voice, seen in the slump of his shoulders, and it was obvious Tsuna had noticed as well.

"A fool who knows his foolishness is wise at least to that extent…" commented Tsuna almost offhandedly.

Looking up slightly, Emilio had just enough time to utter a confused noise before suddenly, he had a tonfa pressed against his windpipe, and someone had yanked his head back with a fistful of his hair, forcing him to stare straight up into the bloodthirsty eyes of a certain skylark.

"Don't make this mistake again, herbivore," hissed Hibari Kyoya before letting go of him and going to stand behind his boss.

Mochida knew the way Emilio's eyes would flick from the cloud guardian to the bird at Tsuna's throat, knew the panic that would sink its icy claws into his heart.

And then, a wide, gentle and shockingly genuine smile spread across Tsuna's face, and Mochida also knew what would happen next.

Emilio would feel all the debilitating guilt crash down on him in waves, drowning him, and in that moment, he would swear to himself that he would die before he willingly disappointed this man again.

"Trust is not so easily regained, Emilio," said Tsuna, and Mochida vividly remembered the day he tiny brunet had said very nearly those exact words to him, remembered the eagerness to prove that he was worthy of regaining that trust.

And when Emilio was dismissed only a few minutes later, Mochida couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face.

This combination of Tsuna's benevolence and Hibari's terrifying bloodlust were the perfect formula for breeding complete and utterly loyal subordinates who would blindly follow Tsunayoshi to the ends of the Earth. Mochida should know, of course, seeing as he'd gone through the drill himself not long after joining up with the Vongola.

And the best part was that Tsunayoshi didn't even seem to know the affect he was having.

After the door had closed behind the thoroughly chastised Emilio, Tsuna and Hibari both seemed to relax a little.

"You're much too soft on the subordinates, omnivore," sneered Hibari, his gaze lingering for a second on the skylark at Tsuna's throat, and the brunet let out a little chuckle, replying with a witty remark.

And as Mochida watched the two banter (or at least Hibari's version of bantering, which consisted of a threat in every other sentence to cover up the affection he felt for the so-called 'omnivore' in front of him), he couldn't help but be just the slightest bit jealous.

What must it be like, he wondered, to be loved so deeply by Sawada Tsunayoshi, that the proof of it was permanently written into his skin?


	4. Raindrops

Michael's favourite part of working behind the bar was seeing all the customers, and trying to guess at the circumstances behind their different marks.

There were so many different and interesting marks to see, and the people they belonged to were generally really friendly and lots of fun to talk to.

For the past few weeks though, Michael's attention had mainly been focused on one particular customer, a petite brunet who looked to be just barely of drinking age.

The man didn't have any set schedule, but whenever he did come, it was always at eight o'clock, on the dot, and his visits were never more than five or six days apart.

Always dressed immaculately in a neat, pinstriped suit, the young man seemed like he belonged more at one of those fancy restaurants across town than he did in Michael's humble little establishment.

It wasn't exactly that he had a very outstanding mark; in fact, the first time the man had walked through the doors, Michael had thought that the droplets of water running down the back of his left hand were real.

It wasn't until the man had taken a seat and Michael had gone over to see what he'd be having that he'd realized that they were markings.

And for some reason, Michael's mind had kept being drawn back to those marks, they were subtle, but extensive, and he couldn't help but wonder how far they went up his arm.

The first few times the man had come to the bar, Michael hadn't really had cause to talk to him, but the fourth time he came, the man had asked Michael whether it would be alright o do some work here, and Michael, seeing no problem with it, had given him his permission.

And with this one interaction, it seemed as if the ice had finally been broken.

The man – Tsuna, Michael later found out – had opened up the briefcase he'd brought with him, and had taken out a rather alarmingly large stack of paperwork and had begun signing away.

Partway through the night, Tsuna had taken off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves all the way to the elbow, showing that the water droplets on his left hand found their origin on the belly of his forearm, starting on the inside of his elbow.

At one point, Tsuna had caught Michael staring, and had smiled an amused smile.

"I've been told many times that it annoys people," he said, "It makes for rather interesting first meetings. I had a librarian yell at me once because she'd thought my hand was really wet."

Michael couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him at this.

"How'd you get it?" he asked, before hastily adding on, "If you don't mind my asking."

Tsuna just smiled a lazy smile and waved his hand dismissively, saying, "I don't mind. Funny thing is, I don't really think there was any one event that caused it."

"Sorry?" asked Michael, slightly confused.

"Well, due to certain…family matters, I've come to associate rain – that's what the water is, raindrops – with a certain friend of mine. It's just that he's always there for me, you see, always there to calm me down and wash away my worries. And he always will be. So I guess when it finally sunk into my thick head that he wasn't going anywhere, well, I got this."

Michael listened closely, intrigued, and when Tsuna finished talking, he was quiet for a moment, thinking this over.

Finally, he couldn't help but ask, "What exactly do you mean, family matters?"

Here, Tsuna grimaced slightly, and Michael was worried he'd offended the other man before the brunet said, "It's kind of complicated. Trust me, you wouldn't be interested."

Michael wanted to protest, to say that he really would be interested, but he knew when to back off, so he did.

After that night, whenever Tsuna came in, Michael made sure to talk to him a bit; he always seemed so tired, and due to the shy almost-friendship that seemed to be building between them, Michael did his best to make sure that the younger male was okay.

Then, suddenly, about two months after he'd started coming to Michael's bar, Tsuna suddenly…stopped.

First one week, then two, then three weeks passed by without Tsuna showing up at the bar, and Michael was starting to get worried. Due to not having the younger male's contact information, though, he didn't really know of any way to get in touch with Tsuna.

Finally, after one whole month had passed in Tsuna's absence, on one lazy Tuesday afternoon, at eight o'clock on the dot, the door to his bar opened, and Michael looked up to see Tsuna walk in.

His moment of relief upon seeing his friend was short-lived, however, when he saw that the younger male was covered in bandages and had two suited men walking on either side of him like bodyguards.

On his right was a man with long, bleached silver hair pulled into a neat ponytail and intelligent green eyes matching the exact shade of those belonging to the wolf on the back of Tsuna's right hand. To his left was a taller man with short black hair and warm brown eyes, a short scar on his chin marring the skin of his face.

The two men on either side of Tsuna turned to look at Michael as he approached, the silver-haired one scowling while the other one smiled brightly.

Tsuna himself matched the smile of the man on his left-hand side and greeted him warmly, saying, "Hello, Michael."

"Hey, Tsuna!" he replied with a smile. "What the hell happened to you? You look like hell."

The silveret beside Tsuna growled low in his throat, but stopped when Tsuna laid a gentle hand on his, the silveret's green eyes flicking down for a quick second to the wolf.

"There were some…complications at work," he said before rolling his eyes and continuing, "And since no one believes that I can take care of myself, my right and left-hand men have suddenly become my babysitters."

"Decimo," said the silveret quietly, seeming almost hurt, "Of course we know that you can take care of yourself. But you're still injured, and you know it's not so unlikely that someone from another family would try and take advantage of your weakness."

The man's strangely deferential way of speaking reminded Michael of his first impression of Tsuna – that he was probably insanely rich, a notion that he had learned to ignore in the time Michael had known the kind brunet but which was now making itself forcefully known once more.

Tsuna just huffed fondly in reply and patted the other man's hand gently once before turning back to Michael.

"Anyways," said the brunet, "This is Gokudera Hayato, my second-in-command, and this is Yamamoto Takeshi, and he's something like my third-in-command."

Tsuna gestured to both in turn, and while he was introducing Yamamoto, he waved in his direction with his left hand, which seemed to catch the taller man's attention for the briefest of moments.

The look he darted at the water droplets on Tsuna's hand was identical to the one Gokudera had used for the red wolf on Tsuna's right, a look Michael had come to associate with people looking at a mark on someone else's body that they had put there.

And as this thought registered, Michael suddenly saw Yamamoto in a new light.

So this man was the cause behind the mark that had so fascinated him these past three months.


	5. The Grape Candy

The first time the finely dressed young man came into her candy store, Bella didn't really know how to react.

Dressed in a suit that probably cost more than she made in a year, the brunet really looked like the kind of guy who'd have employees buying candy for his undoubtedly secret sweet tooth.

Catching her staring, the brunet smiled self-consciously, almost shyly, and offered by way of explanation, "Was on my way home from work when I discovered this place."

And Bella just smiled, because honestly, it wasn't really her place to judge. Anyways, he seemed kind of cute.

The guy bought more than a hundred dollars' worth of candy that first time, and by the time he'd left, he was Bella's new favourite person in the entire world.

And apparently, he'd liked what he'd brought, because he came back not more than a week after, this time dressed in much more casual clothing.

"What, finished all that candy already?" asked Bella in a teasing tone, and the guy blushed brightly.

"I-umm-no , that wasn't-it was for my younger brother," he replied, tripping over his words, and Bella couldn't help thinking how absolutely adorable he was.

"For you brother?" she asked, quirking a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "I see."

This made the guy's cheeks flush an even darker red, and he stuttered out, "W-well, some of it was for me too. Sugar has always been better at keeping me awake than caffeine."

This little tidbit intrigued Bella, and she tilted her head to the side, asking, "I'm guessing you have a pretty stressful job, then?"

"Oh, God, don't even get me started," replied the guy as he began browsing around for candy, "All that paperwork gives me nightmares sometimes. You'd think being your own boss would mean having it easy, but in reality, it's just signing stack after stack of contracts and bills for things your guar-ahem, _employees_ broke."

Raising her eyebrow at the little slip, Bella wanted to ask what he'd been about to say before employees, but if the guy had wanted her to know, he'd have told her, and she knew when not to poke her nose into other people's business.

"If they cause so much trouble, why not fire them?" she asked, not even fazed at learning that this guy was the boss of some probably gigantic company. His clothes the last time he'd been here had said enough.

The guy looked up at her, surprise showing on his face for a second, as if he'd never even dreamed of firing anyone, and the fond smile that graced his features stretched from ear to ear, crinkling up the tribal sun mark that graced his left cheekbone.

"They're childhood friends, and since I have a lot of people out for my neck due to my line of work, there really is no one I trust half so much as I trust them. Anyways, it's not like a few thousand dollars here and there would put even a dent in our finances."

Bella knew she shouldn't be so surprised. She'd known he was rich. But still.

No wonder he didn't find any problems in spending a hundred dollars on sweets.

By the time he'd brought his armload of candy up to the cash register, Bella had been able to hide away her shock, and calmly took the items to scan them.

As the guy was handing over his money, though, she couldn't help but notice a mark in the palm of his hand.

It was a small grape candy, and Bella couldn't help the amused smile that stole across her face when she saw it.

Making a mental note of the brand name, Bella turned her gaze back up to her client as she handed him his bag of items, and his receipt for almost three hundred dollars' worth of candy this time.

Later that night, Bella sat at her laptop, having researched the origins of the candy she'd seen on her favourite customer's hand.

It was a little known brand, apparently only sold in a small town in Japan called Namimori, and was, not at all surprisingly, rather expensive.

Deciding to do something she'd never even dreamed of before, Bella took the risk and bought one small crate of the candies in three different flavours; grape, green apple, and blue raspberry. Bella was sure the young man would be returning to her store sometime soon, and she couldn't wait to see his reaction when he saw what she had.

Displaying the candies in a small box near the cash register, Bella really wasn't so surprised that she didn't sell very many of them; they were insanely expensive, and since no one really knew what they tasted like, they weren't willing to waste so much money on something they might not even like.

It really was all worth it, though, when her favourite customer returned to her store about a week and half after his last visit, a thirteen-year-old boy trailing after him.

The guy gave her a small wave the moment he stepped into the store, but his younger companion didn't even give her a glance, too busy ogling all her merchandise, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"Go ahead and pick out whatever you want, Lambo," said the older male, ruffling his younger companion's curly black hair once. "But so help me God, if it's all done before we even reach home, you will be in so much trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Tsuna," said the boy absently, waving his hand dismissively at the older male, Tsuna, before going off on his own to explore.

Tsuna, meanwhile, came up to the cash register instead of browsing around for candy, like he usually did.

"That the little brother you were talking about last time?" asked Bella in a friendly voice, and Tsuna responded with a nod, smiling fondly over at his charge for a second.

"He's been bothering me for a long time now to bring him here, since he loves the candy from your store so much. The very second I mentioned I had a bit of free time, I found myself being dragged out to the car by him."

Bella laughed a little a this, finding the bond between them absolutely adorable, and she was about to mention the new candies, but Tsuna beat her to it.

Almost as if he knew what he'd find, the brunet turned to look at the box of candies she'd ordered after his last visit, and his eyes grew wide.

When he looked back at Bella, there was a question in his eyes, and Bella just tapped her palm.

When he glanced down at his own palm and saw the candy on there, he was quiet for a second, as if surprised she'd noticed it, before he let out a little laugh, and looked up at Bella with thanks in his eyes.

Then, to her great surprise, Tsuna looked over at his young charge, calling him over.

"What is it, Tsuna-nii?" asked Lambo, tacking on the Japanese honorific by force of habit.

Tsuna pointed out the candies to him, and the moment he saw them, Lambo let out a loud squeal of pure excitement, and dove for one of the grape candies, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth faster than humanly possible.

Bella watched, slightly shocked, as Tsuna laughed fondly and ruffled Lambo's hair again.

Turning back to her, he said, "We'll buy your entire stock of those candies, please."

Nodding mutely, still more than a little shocked, Bella told her customers to, "wait just a second, please," before turning to her back room to get the rest of the candies.

"-ndies you used to give me when I was younger to make me stop crying!" was what Bella heard when she came back, catching the tail end of Lambo's excited rant.

Tsuna was listening intently, giving Lambo his complete and undivided attention, as if what Lambo was saying was the most interesting thing in the world, and Bella almost wanted to coo at how utterly adorable it was.

"Candy's actually a rather surprisingly good way to make friends, isn't it?" asked Tsuna, and his words seemed to be laced with a hidden meaning.

Lambo nodded solemnly, and once Tsuna had paid for the candy (all six hundred and fifty-three dollars of it), the young teen gingerly took out one of the grape candies, which Bella had a hunch were his favourites, and handed it to her.

Bella stared at it speechlessly for a moment before looking up at Lambo, who was smiling brightly at her.

"A thank-you present for you! Candy is a very good way of making friends, you know."


End file.
